Page 56 of Puppy Christmas

“Oh, uh. Thanks.” He took the picture and started stacking up the rogue pages, just barely hiding a dangerous one before she drew close enough to see it. There were a lot of ridiculous parts of himself he was willing to show Lila, but his sketches of her weren’t one of them. “I get bored with coffee makers, so I like to mix it up. You don’t want to know how many pictures of Emily I have tucked away. Or Judge Judy, for that matter. It’s borderline obscene.”

“Judge Judy?” she echoed.

He shrugged. “I like to draw from real life, and since it’s rare that I leave the house, Judy and I have grown close. She’s a fascinating subject. She has a very expressive face.”

Lila stared at him. He was afraid she was going to comment on the depressing state of a man whose primary point of contact with the outside world was a televised small claims court, but he should have known better than to doubt her.

“We live in the golden age of streamed television, yet you spend your days watchingJudge Judy?” she asked.

“Well, notallmy days. Sometimes I branch out intoLaw & Orderreruns. I’ve got quite a Sam Waterston collection in one of these files.”

“Really? That’s the best you can do?”

Judge Judy wasn’t the only one with an expressive face. The lift of Lila’s brow perfectly captured her current mood—one of playfulness and of disbelief. It was a mood she often displayed in his presence these days. The playfulness he could—and did—appreciate, but he wished she wasn’t quite so disbelieving where he was concerned. Yes, it sounded ridiculous that a grown man would keep a running marathon of daytime television on in the background, but he liked the noise. It helped him concentrate.

“Judy is one of my oldest and dearest friends, I’ll have you know,” he replied. “She keeps me entertained without distracting me from my work. I used to watchGame of Thrones, but I kept getting sucked into the story. Well, that and all theb-o-o-b-s.”

She choked on a laugh. “How industrious of you.”

“It’s not my fault. I’m very partial tob-o-o-b-s. Yours, for example, are quite lovely.”

As if realizing for the first time that she did, indeed, possess such attributes, Lila crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him.

“Speaking of, what time are you officially off this evening?” he asked. “I was thinking we should get some practice in before our big date. I had the minivan detailed and everything.”

“Oh, no you don’t.” She crossed her arms harder, which only served to cup her breasts and thrust them enticingly upward. Since she was wearing a fairly modest sweater, Ford couldn’t see much beyond the gentle swell of her upper cleavage, but that was more than enough. “I’m leaving in an hour, and no amount of persuasion on your part will lure me into your van.”

“What about candy?”

“No.”

“Drugs?”

“Absolutely not.”

He paused to consider his options. “Not even a promise to appreciate yourb-o-o-b-sto the fullest?”

“Especially not that.” Lila uncrossed her arms and stood staring down at him, her expression serious. So was her next remark. “Ford, you’re a really talented artist. I had no idea.”

“It’s a living,” he replied with a shrug. Then, because Lila was still watching him in that unsmiling way, he added lightly, “You should see what happens when I get an assignment for toasters. You wouldn’t believe what I can do with a coil filament and a brand new number two pencil.”

By not so much as a blink did Lila betray that she’d heard him. “I don’t know much about the art world beyond what I see in the occasional gallery, but it seems like an awful waste to spend your life drawing coffee makers.”

“Are you forgetting about Judy? I thought about sending in one of her portraits to see if she’d like to commission a painting, but my lawyer keeps throwing around words likestalkerandrestraining order.” He heaved a mock sigh. “Don’t tell him I said so, but lawyers are the real fun sponges of the world.”

“Is that what you studied at school?” she persisted. “Art?”

Ford wasn’t sure what it was about her direct gaze and level voice that he found so unsettling, but it was a struggle to answer in his usual style. “Yes, alas. I wish I could go back and tell my younger self to take up medicine or engineering or anything that commands a halfway decent wage, but I was determined to be the next Will Eisner.” At her questioning look, he added, “He’s a famous graphic novel artist.Themost famous one, actually.”

“Oh.”

That remark was a pretty standard response whenever he started talking about his pet hobby, so he prepared to change the subject with a smile and a return to the tantalizing topic of his minivan and how quickly he could get Lila into it.

Lila had other plans. “Soph used to read a lot of those,” she said. “In the hospital, I mean. She didn’t always have the energy to finish full-length books, so the shorter format worked well for her. She used to complain that all the girls had stupid parts, though. Nothing butt-i-t-sanda-s-s, if you know what I mean.”

“Oh, I know what you mean. Why do you think I was so interested in them as a kid?”

Her gaze remained disconcertingly direct. “I imagine it was because you had an artist’s eye, even back then. Or was it the superhero trope you were drawn to? There’s just enough chivalry in you that I could see it going either way.”